By PHIL JARRATT
Since I last saw the great Makaha longboarder Duane Desoto he’s fathered seven kids, but he’s managed to keep his figure and his sense of humour.
The former world champion was back in the spotlight again at Sydney’s Freshwater Beach last weekend, playing the role of Duke Kahanamoku at Freshie Surf Club’s Duke’s Day centenary celebration.
Last Saturday, exactly 100 years to the day since Duke, the father of modern surfing, plucked young Isabel Letham from the crowd and rode tandem with her on a rough-hewn sugar pine surfboard, Duane performed the same stunt on an identical replica board, wearing an old woollen one-piece and looking every inch the great man.
It was a wonderful, emotional moment, enjoyed immensely by the big crowd.
As I watched it from the beach with body surfing champion Mark Cunningham, Duane’s Makaha mentor Brian Keaulana came up the beach with tears in his eyes.
“I got chicken skin, bra,” he said. He wasn’t the only one!
The re-enactment brought to life a chunk of surfing history that is often misrepresented and misunderstood but established a bond between the surfers of Australia and Hawaii that has often been sorely tested but remains strong today.
A collaboration between Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club and local boardriding clubs (in itself a major achievement), the Duke Centenary was masterminded by surfing cinematographer Jack McCoy, with help from photojournalist John Ogden.
Jack has been fighting ill health for some months but put every ounce of physical and emotional strength he could muster into this project.
When he phoned me the morning after the show he sounded ecstatic and exhausted in approximately equal measure.
The organisers built a mini-festival around the re-enactment, with a historic surfboard exhibition in pride of place upstairs in the original clubhouse and the basement equipment storage area converted into a lecture theatre where, over two days, writers, photographers, film-makers, environmentalists and historians discussed surfing’s past, present and future.
Out on the lawns surrounding the club there were shaping demonstrations and wood board displays, presided over by Noosa’s own guru of wood, Tom Wegener.
I’ve had quite a bit to do with the Freshie Surf Club committee over recent years, and find former president Steve Bennett and his group some of the most amenable people I’ve ever run into in the SLSA movement, inclusive and appreciative of all aspects of the surfing experience.
There are similarly enlightened people within Noosa Surf Club and I’m hoping that we can take a lead from Freshie and work together as surfers this year and into the future.
Noosa surf reserve dedication coming up
Speaking of working together, while the creation of the Noosa National Surfing Reserve was an initiative of boardriders and other community groups, surf club member Chris Doney has worked with us on this project for more than a year and I’m delighted that Noosa Heads Surf Club has now become one of the reserve’s most generous patrons.
As chairman of the NNSR steering committee, I’ll be working with the surf club committee to ensure that dedication day, Friday 6 March, is a true celebration of all aspects of the surfing culture.
We are all surfers, after all, regardless of the ways in which we choose to enjoy the waves.
The dedication of a cairn overlooking the national park break will be followed by an afternoon of surfing exhibitions and displays featuring the legends of surfboard riding and surf life saving, and free entertainment on our Main Beach stage.
Both the dedication ceremony and the celebration will be open to the public.
Watch this space for more details.
